Oh. No, I didn’t do the upgrade to WordPress 2.7 yet. Hopefully I’ll have time to do it this week and hopefully won’t wipe out any of my oh-so-important past posts when I do so!
I doubt my rant today will apply to those reading this, since you’re almost certainly reading it online, via a computer, or maybe a smartphone. But something I heard on the radio yesterday amazed and annoyed me, and I need to rant about it.
I was listening to a talk show on the way in to work. The caller, a woman in her late 40s, was describing her rather lavish outdoor holiday decorations, and the host suggested that she email some photos to the radio station. The caller said she would have her teenaged son do so, because she “doesn’t do that computer stuff.” The host said that was fine, and then suggested that caller not go through the rest of her life without learning how to do it herself.
Well, no shit!
In case caller and anyone else didn’t notice, we are in the 21st century. As far as I’m concerned, it’s no longer cute, or cool, or even acceptable to be totally clueless about “that computer stuff.” It is just plain dumb, and almost bragging about not knowing anything about computers makes you look even dumber.
My mother is in her mid-80s and has a new-ish iMac. She doesn’t use all the bells and whistles (and sadly for me, some of the stuff that I think is most cool about Macs, but hey, that’s between Mom and me) but she can get around the web and we exchange email frequently. I am… ummm…. pretty old… okay, 50, and I would consider myself a power user. I use both PCs and Macs at work and at home, and also run a couple of VPS servers for work, personal and family/friends use. I do use a lot of bells and whistles, but I’m almost never out on the bleeding edge. I’m usually behind the curve when it comes to new products or new releases. Let someone else work out the bugs.
Anyway. If we can embrace or at least call a truce with technology, then so can everyone else. End of story.
Heh, I want to cross-post to my LiveJournal but I guess I haven’t set that up yet ::: adds to to-do list ::: and even worse, I haven’t talked to you all about Axel’s exciting journey towards his American championship that he just started on Sunday.
Back soon!
I don’t understand people who don’t do “that computer stuff.” Maybe it’s because I was raised on a computer, more or less. I have customers who work for cities, and instead of getting digital pictures of equipment via e-mail, I get Polaroids via snail mail. First, you work for a city, try and keep up with technology. Secondly, if you’re not going to learn “that computer stuff” at least get a 35mm camera that takes decent pictures! Like you, I am by no means on the cutting edge of technology, but I am firmly planted in the year 2008, and wish people could just make an effort to try and catch up!
If you’re dealing with large cities, it’s surprising how far behind the technology curve some of them are. I’m guessing it’s because of the expense of updating a large network and all that. But yeah… a few digital cameras and a high-speed connection, how hard would that be?
My parents have a pc but only dad uses it. Mom won’t touch it. Says she just isn’t interested. She doesn’t understand that how much easier it would be for here. Hell, she won’t use her debit card. She still insists on writing checks for groceries. I’d die if online banking went away. I don’t remember how to write a check or put a stamp on an envelope. *G*
LOL I have only a couple of bills that I still pay by check. I, too, would die without online banking. My bank had its own dial-in banking interface pre-Internet, so I’ve had it for a loooooong time.